Spoiled
by Fallen Ark Angel
Summary: Dylan's perfect for Max. But Fang's still better. Post-Nevermore oneshot.


Spoiled

"I hate Fang."

Blinking, I opened my eyes to find Angel there next to me, tears in her eyes and her face all red. Sitting up slightly, I looked around my hut for a moment before settling back into the blankets Fang and I kept in it.

"Angel," I said slowly. "You know that you aren't allowed in here without asking."

"You come in our hut!"

"That's different. I-"

"I hate you too then, Max." She moved to leave, but I just reached out and grabbed her arm. "Let me go!"

"No." Staring at her, I asked, "Tell me what's wrong."

"I hate Fang."

"Why?" I let her go as she laid down next to me in my boyfriend's usual spot. "What happened?"

"He yelled at me."

"About?"

"It doesn't matter. He was mean to me." She snuggled into my side. "I want you to breakup with him."

"Angel-"

"Be with Dylan. I like Dylan. He's always nice. He's never mean to me. Not like Fang. I hate Fang. Fang's a bad boyfriend."

"He is not, Angel. And I'm not going to just break up with him."

"He hurt me."

"What did he do?"

"Mmmm…What do I have to say he did to get you to break up with him?"

I could think of a few things.

"Don't play that game, Angel. What did he do?"

"He yelled at me."

"What did you do?"

"Nothing!"

"Angel."

"He was talking to one of the scientists about something important I guess. But I wanted him to play with me."

"Were you bothering him?"

"I just asked him if he'd play with me and he said no, that he was busy and that I could see he was talking to someone. Then I kept asking. I was just playing! But then he yelled at me. Like he's in charge of me. He's not. You are."

"I am," I told her. "And so is Fang."

"Na-ah. Not if I don't want him to be."

"Angel-"

"If you were with Dylan, then Dylan would be in charge of me."

I frowned at her. "How do you figure? Fang's always been in charge of you. Always. He loves you, Angel."

"No. He yelled at me."

"Angel-"

"I want you to be with Dylan. He always plays with me and catches me and Nudge fish and helps take care of Akila. Fang's just mean. I don't like him. You should be with Dylan and kick Fang off the island."

"I love Fang, Angel."

"You love Dylan too though," she said, staring up at me. "I know that you do."

"I love what Dylan's supposed to be because of what I'm supposed to be." I wiped away some off her tears. The last thing Angel liked was being told what to do. Fang must have really unleashed on her though, to bring her to tears. "I'm not just Maximum Ride though, Angel. I'm Max. And Max loves Fang."

"But how come? He's mean."

"I know he is sometimes. But he cares about you and me, you know. Very much."

"He yelled at me, Max. Why don't you get that?"

"I get it. But you also get that you were doing bad."

"No."

"Angel, when Fang and I are working, you need to understand that we can't play with you. We just can't. There is a lot of business that goes into this island. A lot of hard work. And I know that sometimes it's hard to understand, but Fang and I aren't just always going to be around to play with you."

"Dylan is," she told me which only made me roll my eyes. "Dylan's always there."

"Dylan's perfect for me, Angel. In every way. Every possible way." I kissed her head. "But Fang's better."

"Why though?"

"It's complicated."

"Then explain it to me."

"Dylan's…great. He's nice. He's almost always even tempered. He understand that the world's important, but thinks that I'm more important. He couldn't stand the thought of me not being around him. Which is great."

"Then what?"

"It's great, Angel, for someone else. I would get bored with a guy like that."

"So you want a butthead like Fang then?"

"Fang is not a butthead," I told her, shaking my head. "He's just different than Dylan. You know."

"He's rude, he never wants to play princess and prince like Dylan and Iggy will do, his favorite game is the quiet game, he-"

"Wait, what?"

She nodded. "Whenever me and Gazzy ask him to play with us, we have to play the quiet game and see who's quietest for the longest. Then when he wins, Fang says his prize is us leaving him alone."

I just stared at her for a moment before giggling.

"It's not funny, Max," she complained. "I don't like Fang."

"Fang does all of those things, Angel," I agreed with her once I stopped laughing. "But he also does a lot of other things."

"Like what?"

"He's taken care of you, Angel, since you were a little kid. Fang would kill himself for you."

"No. Nudge told me that when you guys thought I was dead in France, he just ran off and left you guys."

"He did that," I agreed with her, nodding slightly though the memory wasn't a good one. "But that's because Fang doesn't think like Dylan. The world is more important to him than us. And that's not always a bad thing. Fang's just driven. He wanted to save the world. And who can fault him for that?"

She shook her head. "He doesn't love me."

"Angel, I've yelled at you before. I've upset you before. What did Fang say to you?"

She snuggled deeper into me. "He called me a brat."

"What?"

"When he was yelling at me. 'cause I told him that he wasn't no good since he wouldn't play with me. He called me a spoiled brat." Sniffling, she turned her head up to look at me. "How come Fang doesn't like me anymore?"

"Oh, Angel, that's not true. Fang-"

"It is though," she insisted. "I went into his head while he was yelling at me. He doesn't like me."

"He was upset."

"In his mind, he-"

"I thought I told you to cut that out?" I moved down some to rest my forehead against hers. "Fang and I love you, Angel. Sometimes, though, when you make us angry, we say and think things we shouldn't. We're only human."

"But Dylan-"

"Dylan isn't in charge of you. Dylan doesn't have to worry about your wellbeing. Dylan is like…an uncle."

"Uncle?" she asked with a wrinkled nose.

"Yeah. You always love your uncle."

"How would you know? We don't have uncles."

"I just do," I told her, frowning. "Your uncle's fun because he loves you, sure, but he never has to punish you. Fang though does. He's like a father. A daddy."

"Max-"

"I know," I said as she squirmed away from me. "You don't like to hear that. It's true though. Fang's in charge of you. Just like I am. And sometimes, you aren't going to like what we make you do. Sometimes you're going to get angry with what we make you do. But that's why we're in charge of you. We make the hard decisions, not Dylan, not Iggy. Fang and I do."

"Still. He didn't have to be so mean."

"I know. But you need to stop trying to get our attention when we're working. You don't interrupt adults, huh?"

"You're not adults."

"You know what I mean."

She just humphed before moving to bury her head in my stomach. "What were you doing in here anyways, Max?"

"Napping," I told her, stroking her blonde hair now.

"It's the middle of the day."

"That's why it's called napping and not sleeping, silly."

It was then that the blanket hung over the doorway into the hut moved and Fang came in. When he saw Angel and I though, he hesitated.

"What's going on?" he asked me, frowning. "Why are you in bed?"

"I finished work for today and had a headache. I came to lay down," I told him as Angel snuggled deeper into me, clearly not waiting to be around Fang. "And Angel came to tell me something interesting."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yes. She is not a brat, Fang."

"Max-"

"She might have been doing wrong, I'll give you that. She shouldn't have interrupted you. But you do not call her spoiled or a brat."

"You weren't there. She-"

"She's a little girl, Fang."

Grumbling, he moved to lay down on the other side of Angel. Apparently, he was napping too. Great. Now I just needed to get Angel out of here…

"I'm sorry, Angel, if I hurt your feelings," Fang said now, turning on his side to face us. "You hear me?"

"No. I hate you."

He looked at me, but I just shrugged. Sighing, Fang said, "You can't act up anymore, Angel. It's not like the old days. Max and I have actual duties to attend to. I wish that we still just lived in that house in Colorado and I could just play with you constantly. But we don't live there anymore. We live on the island now. Max's island. And she's chosen me to help her with that island. So sometimes I'm not going to be able to play. I'm sorry."

"…You still hate me."

"I don't hate you."

"Yes, you do. And it's not fair. I only wanted to play with you, Fang."

"I know."

"And you called me a brat. I'm not a brat. Max doesn't think so either."

"I know you're not."

"And I'm not spoiled."

Fang just glanced at me and then at her as Angel rolled over to face him. "I'm not going to take that one back."

"I'm not."

"You are." He smiled at her. It wasn't much of one, his smile, but it was something. "It's okay though. Max made you that way."

"All on my own? I did it all on my own, Fang?"

"Yes, Max, you did."

"I remember _you_ being involved with the spoiling."

"Nope. Wasn't there."

"Hmmm. Never ever?"

Fang just stared at me for a second before glancing at Angel. "Hey, Ange?"

"What?"

"Let's teach Max how to play our game."

"Which game?"

"The quiet game." His face was impassive when he looked back to me. "You really need to learn that one, Max."

"You're an idiot," I said, moving to hit him in the arm. Fang made a noise of annoyance, apparently forgetting for a moment that we weren't alone.

"That hurt," Fang complained.

"Did not."

"How do you know? Are you me? No."

"That wasn't nice, Max," Angel told me, moving away from me to inspect Fang's arm. "Are you okay?"

He just nodded before looking over her at me. I smiled, glad that the two of them had made up so quickly.

"Yeah, Angel," he said. "I think I am."


End file.
